Make It Right - New Orleans

Client: Make It RightLocation: New Orleans, LouisianaSize: 1,250 s.f.

This proposal for housing in the Lower Ninth Ward merges abstraction of traditional styles with a modern sensibility, capturing the successful components of each as a means of generating a more robust whole. The project is informed by the shotgun house, a traditional New Orleans housing typology, which is represented through an expressive, almost exaggerated, gable roof and generous front porch. The design bolsters an open relationship between home and community through providing areas that promote interaction with neighbors and friends, an aspect that has historically been a significant part of the Lower Ninth’s special character.

Affordable sustainable amenities are incorporated within the home, including solar panels, water collection, a geothermal system, tankless water heater, permeable pavement, non-off-gassing paints and finish materials, as well as high ceilings with operable high R-value windows.

Toward the back of the house, the gabled roof morphs into a flat roof, which affords a high-water safe haven in case of emergency.